SPEED petition

[Bill Miller]

http://www.petitiononline.com/SpdTV/petition.html

[zracre]

BRAVO!!!!!!!! signed and link passed along!!

[lateapex911]

too bad we're outnumbered by millions!

[Bildon]

I was # 10,307

[Chris Wire]

11031

And Speed, like certain politicians, doesn't listen to the masses. They believe they know what we like better than we do. The result is the endless drivel of everything NASCAR. I actually watch the racing, but how many "behind the scenes" shows can you have for drivers, crew chiefs, mechanics, truck drivers, and wives/girlfriends?

[Bill Miller]

Chris,

It's not so much that they think they know what we want to watch, as it is, who is paying the most for the advertising slots.

I know this petition probably won't have any impact at all, but at least I can say I tried.

[zracre]

This petition os a great thing!! I am glad it is here and I keep telling people about it...I cant stand to watch an idiot standing on a drag strip with a perfectly good christmas tree and timing lights behind him to run a smack talking "street race"...what the f*&k??!! monkeys f#*%!ng a football stupid! or nascar poker or a chopper parody even corbins ride on infomercial...nopi tunervision...please you would think sports bars around the country would want motogp f1 alms world challenge ama superbike even some homegrown road racing or oval stuff....keep it racing keep it speedchannel!!!

[RSTPerformance]

I signed the petition, however we are a small nitch of people... so we shall see if it gets anywhere... what we really need is some nopi tunner type program marketing the SCCA... Unfortunatly that nopi type stuff has a much much larger croud (and a lot more $$$) than us "Road Racers." Also you would probably be very hard pressed to find any sports bars in New England that showed racing on TV... I think they would rather play re-runds of the Red Sox World Series, and unfortunatly the patrons would much rather watch that than an automobile race, be it Nascar or F1.

Raymond "RIP Speedvision Oct 1998 thru Feb 2000" Blethen

[RSTPerformance]

Did you all see the Speed News recap last night... Sunday the day the 24 hrs of daytona ended. It started with the Daytona 500 Nascar practice crap then went to the second story... the 24 hrs of Daytona. They also thought it was so cool that non-Road Racers won the race. Blah Blah Blah.

Stephen Blethen

PS:

Way to Go Tony Stewart! He stood up for himself and didn't listen to those Money Hungry Nascar people He is running the events he wants to run!

[MIKEGTR]

Speed TV should've stopped its "sitcoms" with TUner Transformation & Sports Car Revolution which were quite nice... then they added Fifth Gear (Top Gear) and it boomed again three real good shows... plus quality road racing broadcast when they were not obsessing over Nascar or monster jam!!!

Mike

[MMiskoe]

I emailed them a few years back to bitch about the 2 weeks of non-stop nascar coverage around this time of year & got the response that although they showed nothing but nascar for a week straight, it was their highest rated week.

Do you think it would be possible to get them to at least mention that some of the big SCCA races happen when they do a Sunday evening recap of the weekend? Even a 2 minute spot to admit that something like the June Sprints or one of the 12 hour races happened would be nice. Hell, I'd be happy if they did it for NASA simply to increase exposure for people like us. But I have no idea how to go about requesting such a thing or filing a story.


On the Monster Jam - don't knock it too hard, my 3 year old LOVES those trucks. If you petition those off afternoon TV you'll have him on your hands, and probably his little brother too!

Matt

[MIKEGTR]

My point being... they're covering almost every single monster jam venue and only the runoffs for club racing... how about some other club racing venues getting exposure... once a year is not nearly enough exposure for SCCA and other club racing sanctioning bodies...

Mike

[mgyip]

Unfortunately as the minority that doesn't follow the NASTYCAR soap opera, this petition and the countless private emails sent to SPEED are equivalent to pissing into a hurricane. The petition certainly is a feel-good effort and I have signed it myself but don't expect any miracles to occur.

Sadly the American auto racing enthusiast (read NASTYCAR fan) is the same person who honestly believes that WWE is real and that Elvis was in attendance at Daytona. As a friend who attended the Rolex race for the first time put it, NASTYCAR does well b/c it puts racing in an arena with distinct personalities. Road Racing extends over a large area that requires the lazy fans to move from place to place in order to see all the action AND in the case of endurance racing, the personality du jour may or may not be in the car at any given time.

I'm not getting my hopes up that SPEED will ever change - remember that their game is all about ratings. If they discovered that the Dale Earnhardt Show, a TV series about the life and times of the larger-than-life NASTYCAR God, you'd be certain that you'd see that at least 2x a day if not more. Simply put, sports fans don't want their motorsports heros to drive cars that aren't make in the homeland, nor do they want their motorsports heros to speak any language other than American.

[lateapex911]

..... Simply put, sports fans don't want their motorsports heros to drive cars that aren't make in the homeland, nor do they want their motorsports heros to speak any language other than American.
[/b]

So does that mean Mikey Waltrip will lose the admiration of his huge flock of glassy eyed followers when he climbs in the Avolon ride?

Or will Toyota slide by becuse lots are built here?

SPEED is all about the $$. And the lowest common denominator is a great place to seperate money from wallets.

[Bill Miller]

So does that mean Mikey Waltrip will lose the admiration of his huge flock of glassy eyed followers when he climbs in the Avolon ride?

Or will Toyota slide by becuse lots are built here?

SPEED is all about the $$. And the lowest common denominator is a great place to seperate money from wallets.
[/b]

Actually Jake, it's a Camry. And I'm sure there will be plenty of outrage from those that think it's all abour "racin' 'merican cars", but just like the truck series, they'll get integrated in, and that will be that. Also, the marque distinction has taken a back seat (no pun intended) to the drivers. Just listen to the way they call the races, "#15 car, # 32 car, etc. etc.". They rarely mention the margue anymore. And w/ drivers switching teams, the marque loyalty goes by the boards. It's the driver loyalty that matters.

[mgyip]

So does that mean Mikey Waltrip will lose the admiration of his huge flock of glassy eyed followers when he climbs in the Avolon ride?

Or will Toyota slide by becuse lots are built here?

SPEED is all about the $$. And the lowest common denominator is a great place to seperate money from wallets.
[/b]

I'm sure that Waltrip will lose some fans b/c he's driving a "furrin" car and especially a Japanese car - remember just like the North, the Japanese are still the enemy ;) . Toyotas are built in the US but they're not really American cars - the employees aren't UAW (I don't think) and therefore they aren't built by real Americans.

You ain't kidding about the lowest common denominator separating the fans from their money. When I was at Daytona last week, I had the "pleasure" of visiting Daytona USA b/c my fellow crew member was a Daytona virgin AND a NASTYCAR fan. I was amazed at the "fan ware" they had for sale in their rather voluminous store AND in the numerous trailers throughout the facility. What was even more amazing were the number of sale trailers that were parked behind the West stands (the ones that aren't used for Rolex) - something on the magnitude of 40+ trailers!!

The reality is that SPEED, Grand Am, Rolex and certainly NASTYCAR are all about the almighty dollar. Since Grand Am, Rolex, and all other non-NASTYCAR forms of racing aren't bringing in the big bucks, they lose when it comes to air time.

[dave parker]

The reality is that SPEED, Grand Am, Rolex and certainly NASTYCAR are all about the almighty dollar. Since Grand Am, Rolex, and all other non-NASTYCAR forms of racing aren't bringing in the big bucks, they lose when it comes to air time.
[/b]

Wait a minute, there is money in racing? Besides spending your money to race?

The boat left and I just wasn't on it!!! :bash_1_:

:happy204: :D

cheers
"dangerous" dave parker

[zracre]

Nascar...the most popular Spec racer series out there! The cars are all the same...ugly...the cars just turn left!! at least dirt track they turn right too...and have better racing...but that still isnt anywhere near the popularity of nascar. It is all in the show...as said before...Nascar is WWF. I actually found it more fun to watch a monster truck battle than to watch a bunch of spec racers drone around in a circle...just shows good marketing makes a series...if we just had the same marketing for Speed GT and Touring...plenty of flamboyant personalities and colorful cars to look at...maybe we would have something.

[Knestis]

SPEED will put ANYTHING on television if someone will pay them to do it. The PCA enduro from Willow and the Summit Point 12 hours a couple years back were both aired because participants lined up enough dough to produce the show (not a small undertaking) and buy the air time. We aren't all rich enough to spend our way to fame and glory.

OR, advertisers see enough value in the size and demographic of an audience to make them think it's worthwhile to buy commercial slots or derive other marketing value from buying into the production and/or airtime to put something on the tube. No media buyer is going to pin her job on the 50,000 or so people who watched the Rolex 24.

That's pretty much the only ways the system can work, absent the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. And that presumes that someone has decided that particular programming brings with it social benefits (e.g., education, culture, or whatever). No matter what YOU think, road racing is NOT culture.

That's three ways to get airtime. "It's just such cool racing" is NOT one of them. Why is this so hard for people, who otherwise seem pretty clever, to understand? You're the network to lose money on every broadcast because YOU think something is cool to watch?

K

[JeffYoung]

A true story....

In 2002 I believe, The Speed Channel changed its name to Speedvision and moved South from Connecticut to Charlotte, NC. They hired Jim Liberatore (don't hold me to the spelling) as their President, a former cable TV guy from Somewhere, USA.

They then started looking around for a lawyer for their organization. I had a friend who worked for their parent corporation in LA and I got an interview. I drove from Raleigh to Charlotte, after submitting a resume that talked up my 30 years as a NASCRAP fan (I have actually seen Richard Petty win a race, and saw Durrl Waltreep win his FIRST race -- and yes, NASCRAP was better when it was real rednecks in real 'Murican land yachts going toe to toe at 200 mph, this watered down shit we've seen the last 10 years sux) and my budding SCCA aspirations.

I hit it off well with the parent corp's lead lawyer. I honestly thought he was going to hire me on the spot. The then took me in to see Liberatore........here's some of the discussion I had with the guy (he's moved on, so I don't mind sharing this):

a. Sports car racers were what he termed "Nigels." Guys with tweed caps who liked to fiddle with the carbs on their British cars.

b. NASCRAP was the future of all autosport. IRL was basically NASCRAP formula for open wheel -- a few makes, basically a spec series. CART was dying (boy was he right about that).

c. I was not a normal guy because I didn't watch "Friends."

d. Who did I know on any NASCRAP teams or with NASCRAP itself?

I went back and talked to the parent corp's lawyer and discussed some salary figures. Still thought I might have had a chance. Got a polite letter later from him saying ....no. LIberatore actually hired some guy who had some minor involvement in a NASCRAP team.

Pretty clear at the time that Liberatore was going to run Speed Channel/Speedvision as the "Nascar Channel." As Kirk says, how can you blame him? NASCRAP is huge dollars, and it moved Speedvision....somewhat...out of its niche market. But not like they thought.

Actually, good that I stayed at my law firm. Made partner, and have been blessed enough to have money to spend on racing. Who knows what would have happened as an attorney for a niche cable TV station?

In any event, like someone said above, no petition will change this. 10,000, even 100,000 potential viewers will not change Speed's view that NASCrAP gives them the biggest audience -- a view that is in fact true.

Better off trying to get a larger cable channel devote more time to auto racing....

[zracre]

Better off trying to get a larger cable channel devote more time to auto racing....
[/b]

and then NASCRAP channel will buy the rights to all the televised series and not show them...Speed Channel should market and show exciting racing for road racing to win over the public...they should use ROW experience and see where it goes and gets them...a worthy investment. F1 last year did not help...and rolex daytona prototypes are...ugly and boring to watch unless in a tight battle...then again a yugo would be fun to watch if it were passing and repassing...speed tc and gt should be marketed better i think it would do pretty good.

and i like Nigel Shiftwright!!